Ex-Panama dictator Noriega suffers possible stroke

PANAMA CITY — Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who was toppled by a 1989 American invasion and later convicted of drug running, was transferred from prison to a hospital on Sunday, possibly because of a stroke, police said.

The 77-year-old Noriega has high blood pressure and apparently suffered a brain hemorrhage, Panamanian National Police said in statement. He was taken from the El Renacer prison where he was serving out his sentence to Hospital Santo Tomas in Panama City.

One of his three daughters, Sandra, was seen entering the hospital, which was guarded by police agents.

In December, Panamanian authorities said Noriega was suffering from mobility due to a previous stroke.

Noriega, who ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, spent about 20 years in U.S. and French prisons on drug-trafficking and money-laundering convictions, before returning to Panama on Dec. 11, 2011. Shortly after returning home under heavy security, he was seen publicly in a wheelchair being helped by prison authorities.

Noriega was Panama's longtime intelligence chief before becoming its top leader.

While he had been considered a valued CIA asset for years, the U.S. government soured on him, especially after a top political opponent was killed in 1985 and Noriega appeared to join forces with Latin American drug traffickers.

U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered an invasion in December 1989 to oust him from power. He was captured and brought to Miami.

Prosecutors said Noriega helped the Medellin cocaine cartel ship "tons and tons of a deadly white powder" into the United States. But the defense said the indictment "smells all the way from here to Washington."

Jurors convicted him in April 1992 of eight of 10 charges. Under the judge's instructions, they were told not to consider the political side of the case, including whether the U.S. had the right to invade Panama and bring Noriega to trial in the first place.

When his 17-year sentence ended in 2007, France extradited him on money-laundering charges.

Noriega also had legal troubles awaiting him in Panama, where he had been convicted in absentia of murder, embezzlement and corruption charges that carried a combined 60-year prison sentence.